Barrow departs from Jammeh's style, set to appoint a Gambian as Chief Justice

President Adama Barrow is set to appoint a Gambian as new Chief Justice of the West African country.

The move will be a departure from the style adopted by his immediate predecessor, Yahya Jammeh, who had a preference for appointing judges from other West African countries.

The new man, Justice Hassan Jallow, according to local media sources is the longest serving Attorney General and Minister of Justice under the country’s first president Sir Dawda Jawara.

He was appointed to the post in 1982 as Solicitor general of The Gambia before holding the post of Attorney General and Minister of Justice between 1984 and 1994. he was appointed a Supreme Court judge in 1998.

Jallow has international working experience with the United Nations and the Commonwealth.

Nigerian Emmanuel Fagbenle was the last ‘West African’ Chief Justice under Jammeh. He made two rulings last January relating to post election crisis in the country.

He ruled that there were no judges to sit on an election petition brought by President Jammeh and also a case seeking to block the January 19 investiture of then president-elect Adama Barrow.

Gambia usually uses the services of judges from fellow West African countries in its superior court. Jammeh fled the country to Equatorial Guinea after regional forces were deployed by ECOWAS to force him out of power.